THQ – 800k units break-even on core games “days are over”

THQ CEO Brian Farrell said in the firm’s full-year earnings call last night that core games can’t break even in the 700-800,000 unit range any more.

“On the core titles, yeah, 700,000, 800,000 units, those days unfortunately we think are over,” he said in answer to a question about break even levels.

“But within the kids segment, the break evens are very low – I mean, depending on the title, how many SKUs you do, per SKU your break-evens are, depending on the platform, could be somewhere between even 100 and 400,000 units.”

The target sales level was “fairly low in the kids and mass appeal as you might suspect but much higher on the core titles,” the exec added.